But I was never a Deaner. The early look of the Committee was typically 50s. Just once. No matter how progressive we become, there will always be those who will still hang on to the tradition of hate. You received demerits for almost anything: Chewing gum. It is hosted by the titular Corny Collins, with the exception of the monthly Rhythm and Blues special which is hosted by Motormouth Maybelle . Advertisement. offered an unfiltered, uncompromising celebration of Black literature, poetry, music, and politics, capturing a critical moment in culture whose impact continues to resonate today. [citation needed]. We faked a feud. Oh sure, if you were Joe College [pre-preppie], you just didnt do The Deane Show. Did you ever tum into a Joe College? I ask innocently. The buddy dean show debuted on Sep. 9. MPT did a segment which included interviews with former African American dancers who appeared on the show. In 1950, Deane moved to Baltimore to host 1230 AM WITH after Stan Kenton, a performer and guest he was interviewing, informed him of the opening at the radio station. Participants dressed in "country" style, and danced to country and western music as well as pop. Everywhere we went, people would say Theres Mary Lou. I wondered if she had just been released from the penitentiary.. Thats what really happened, and the show shut down.. Ninfa O. Barnard Special to The Commercial [citation needed] With an ear for music seasoned by many more years as a disc jockey than Clark, Deane also brought to his audience a wider array of white musical acts than were seen on American Bandstand. I had always studied dance, and I wanted to go on [the show]. From 1968 into 1973, the public television variety show SOUL! You are history. Deane even dubbed himself "the morning mayor." The Buddy Deane Show was over. This article is among features at explorepinebluff.com, a program of the Pine Bluff Advertising and Promotion Commission. On the last day of the show, January 4, 1964, all the most popular Committee members through the years came back for one last appearance. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. The big garage-type door they remember would open, and theyd all pile in, past George and Mom, the Pinkerton guards who used to keep attendance, and crowd into Arlenes office to comb their hair, confide their problems, and touch up their make-up. So you cant imagine how excited I was when I finally got a chance to interview these local legends twenty years later. Black and white together on local TV. Kings mention of Funtown is preceded by references to lynch mobs, police brutality, and the airtight cage of poverty, and followed by references to hotel segregation and racial slurs. This sentiment carries through to the songs lyrics. Nationally, American Bandstand blocked black teens from entering the studio during its years in Philadelphia, despite host Dick Clarks claims to the contrary. Buddy wanted it to end happily, but WJZ angered Deaners when it tried to blame the ratings. This weekly time slot became known as "Special Guest Day" by the Deane Show's white performers and "Black Monday" by Baltimore's Black teens. We really sprayed it, remembers Mary Lou today from her home in Pennsylvania. All on Pulaski Highway. The "Corny Collins Show" in Hairspray is loosely based on the Baltimore teen dance program called the "Buddy Deane Show." One Baltimore woman fought to get black teens on the popular show back in . Please read our Terms of Use or contact us. But by far the most popular hairdo queen on Buddy Deane was a 14-year-old Pimlico Junior High School student named Mary Lou Raines. Deane hosted a morning show at WITH. The 1988 John Waters film, newly adapted into an NBC live musical, presents a view of racial discrimination thats by turns nave and enlightening. Clip from Shake, Rattle, and Roll: The Buddy Deane Scrapbook Do you miss show biz? I ask her. The Corny Collins Show is based on the real Buddy Deane Show which, interestingly, was cancelled in 1964 for refusing to integrate black and white dancers, a core theme in this musical. As with the drapes and squares of the previous decade, she explains, there were two classes of people thenDeaners and Joe College. This man approached me, telegrammed me, showed up at the show. There were threats and bomb scares; integrationists smuggled whites into the all-black shows to dance cheek-to-cheek on camera with blacks, and that was it. Over the next several years, Deane's show became the top-rated local TV show in Baltimore and the highest rated local show in the United States. Buddy Deane used to boast that every major rock 'n' roll star of the era appeared on the show, except Elvis Presley and Rick Nelson. In fact, "American Bandstand" was not shown on television in Baltimore because Deane's show was so popular. Originally an all-white teen show with a monthly "Negro . Though black and white . I was aggressive. Once a month the show was all black; there was no black Committee. I wanted to get into the record businessand years later he did. I'm sure they could have reached out to me via these posts, but did not. I used to lie in bed at my parents house, and there was an African-American community up the street and they went by singing along to the radio. "I remember it well," recalls Evanne. You Cant Stop the Beat, for example, is an upbeat dance number that resolves the issue of segregation on the Corny Collins Show. I had trunks of it. Buddy offered to have three or even four days a week all black, but that wasnt it. [2], https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Buddy_Deane_Show&oldid=1101079819. In its version of 1960s Baltimore, teenagers sing and dance their way past race. It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. Sources: www.IMDB.com -- Buddy Deane Biography; www.OzNet.com - A Collection of Articles About Buddy Deane; www.Variety.com -- Winston J. Perhaps the highest bouffants of all belonged to the Committee member who was my personal favorite: Pixie (who died several years later from a drug overdose). Deane even played a small role in the movie, which premiered to moderate success but went on to become a cult classic. Waters: We used to go to the hotel and hed say, Come in, and hed be in bed with a cleaning woman smoking pot., It was Tracy saying to Link: Please dont look at my legs without the benefit of nylons.. These dances included the Mashed Potato, the Stroll, the Pony, the Waddle, the Locomotion, the Bug, the Handjive, the New Continental and the Madison. When I get depressed, I dont go to the psychiatrist, I go to the jeweler, she says. This assessment proved true when on Aug. 12, 1963 a group of black and white kids stormed the stage of "The Buddy Deane Show" and danced together. Mr. See, the fictional Corny Collins Show is actually based on the real Buddy Deane Show, which aired on WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland from 1957 to 1964, and was the inspiration for John Waters . Oh, my God, its Evanne! Autograph books, cameras, this is what they lived for. This assessment proved true when on Aug. 12, 1963 a group of black and white kids stormed the stage of "The Buddy Deane Show" and danced together. The Buddy Deane.phenomenon is hardly dead. Weve been searching for her for years, even Ricki Lake couldnt find her when she had her TV show., John Waters and members of the original cast of Hairspray. After you sprayed it, youd get toilet paper and blot it. So a year later when he had his own show, it seemed only right that "Rock Around the Clock" premiered on "The Buddy Deane Show.". On Sept. 13, 1964, he introduced The Beatles before their concert at the Baltimore Civic Center, and a few days later, he and his family moved back to Arkansas. Not show biz, Arlene answers, hesitating, but the record biz, the people. Deane helped the Bill Haley and the Comets song "Rock Around the Clock" become a hit in Baltimore a full year before it became a worldwide success by promoting their music while at WITH. "Where: 800 N. Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21201. by 'Buddy' Deane; www.WashingtonPost.com -- The Messy Truth of The Real 'Hairspray.' Being a teenage star in Baltimore had its drawbacks. That really hit home then., He adde, That scene where Tracy and [Link] are making out outside and the homeless guy walks up the street singing, that is exactly true. And none are bitter. It suggests a way of understanding race that allows viewers to disavow bigotryframed in the story as the belief that white and black Americans should live in separate sphereswithout acknowledging, confronting, or seeking to overturn the actual structures of discrimination. Not one of the Committee members, the ones chosen to be on the show every daythe Baltimore version of the Mouseketeers, the nicest kids in town, as they were billed. Yeah it was Cosenel, says Joe. Hundreds of thousands of teens learned the latest dances by watching Committee members on the show, copying their personal style, and following their life stories and interactions. Seeing Hairspray as more than simply a post-racial American fantasy requires taking the storys teen dance show setting seriously. The movie was eventually turned into a musical by the same name. On the one hand, the storys feel-good conclusion implies that colorblindness is the silver bullet that ends racial discrimination, that good intentions and individual acts of bravery are enough to bring about harmony. Everybody wanted to kick a Buddy Deaners a, says Gene, recalling thugs waiting to jump Deaners outside the studio. The "Buddy Dean Show" was abruptly cancelled. In my on-going search for African American footage I stumbled across this article in Google. Integration ended The Buddy Deane Show. A devoted fan of the Buddy Deane Show, Waters drew on this history to write and direct the original film version of Hairspray. By what name was The Buddy Deane Show (1957) officially released in Canada in English? I only saw Divine alive one more time after that night, so it was a great, great night to remember. The action of the musical takes place in 1962 and centers around Baltimore's teenage obsession with the television program The Corny Collins Show, a stand-in for an actual Baltimore production of the day, The Buddy Deane Show. The Hairspray Live! Winston Joseph Deane was born on Aug. 2, 1924, in Pine Bluff. The information used was obtained from WJZ. If Im ever depressed, sometimes I think, Well this will make me feel better, and I go and dig in the box., Holding onto the memories more than anyone is Arlene Kozak, who is by far the most loved by all the Committee members. "How 'The Buddy Deane Show' really went off the air is the white kids crashed Negro Day to integrate it. That was our whole social life, being a Buddy Deaner, says Gene. Washington D.C.'s The Milt Grant Show offered "Black Tuesday" and Baltimore's The Buddy Deane Show had "Negro Day" because . Once I was off the show for a while, and they said I had joined the nunnery, says Helen, laughing. Only white teens became members of the elite Committee the Buddy Deane equivalent of the Mouseketeers. Motormouth Maybelle, a fictional black deejay and civil-rights activist played in the NBC version by Jennifer Hudson, sings: You cant stop today as it comes speeding down the track / Child, yesterday is history and its never coming back / Cause tomorrow is a brand new day and it dont know white from black. In the films narrative, this utopian vision of a colorblind future solves the problem of segregation and racial injustice. Deane died in Pine Bluff on July 16, 2003, after experiencing complications caused by a stroke. "If you first appeared on The Buddy Deane Show then you could not appear on The Dick Clark Show," Deane said. The AP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing. The "Corny Collins Show" in Hairspray is loosely based on the Baltimore teen dance program called the "Buddy Deane Show." One Baltimore woman fought to get black teens on the popular show back in 1958. After a surprise interracial broadcast, WJZ-TV received bomb and arson threats, hate mail, and complaints from white parents. Waters would rush home . It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. But black kids in . This Committees committee, under the watchful eye of Arlene, chose new members, taught the dance steps, and enforced the demerit system, which could result in suspension or expulsion. "The Buddy Deane Show," which aired on WJZ-TV in Baltimore from 1957 until 1964. . Ladies and gentlemen, the nicest kids in town!. With the rising pressures of integration, the producers decided that the show must either be integrated or canceled. This Article is related to: Film and tagged Divine, Hairspray, IFC Center, John Waters. With the 1960s came a whole new set of stars, some with names that seemed like gimmicks, but werent: Concetta Comi, the popular sister team of Yetta and Gretta Kotik. From 1996 to 2003, he hosted dance events in Baltimore, Pennsylvania and aboard cruise ships. And it was not unique: Dick Reids Record Hop in Charleston, West Virginia; Ginny Paces Saturday Hop in Houston, Texas; John Dixons Dixon on Disc in Mobile, Alabama; Bill Sanderss show in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Dewey Phillipss Pop Shop in Memphis, Tennessee; and Chuck Allens Teen Tempo in Jackson, Mississippi, were all segregated dance shows. Material from the Associated Press is Copyright 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Could it be? You had to wear nylons. Most Deaner girls wouldnt even tongue-kiss, claims Arlene, remembering the ruckus caused by a Catholic priest when the Committee modeled strapless Etta gowns on TV. I was honored, touched by it all.. The more hair spray, the better. It was the era of rock n' roll ducktail, pegged pants, and beehive haridos. Performances begin at 7 p.m. It was horrible/ says Joe. For example, consider the comments of members of the "Committee" [the regularly featured White teenagers on that show] about boys having it worse than girls because boys weren't supposed to dance. He left behind his wife, Helen Stevenson Deane; his three daughters, JoEllen, Dawn, and Debbie and their families. I was totally star-struck and had as much fun that night as I did at the Cannes Film Festival. At frantic meetings of the Committee, many said, My parents simply wont let me come if its integrated, and WJZ realized it just couldnt be done. The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. As Marie puts it, The rewards were so great emotionally that you didnt have to ask for a monetary award., Many had difficulties dealing with the void when the show went off the air. He just didnt understand., But some have dealt with the problems in good humor. Im still a fana Deaner groupie. I dont think Ill ever get over missing it, if you want to know the truth., Many of the Committee members spouses faced an even bigger adjustment. (They gave her a diamond watch at the last reunion.) If I have one regret in life, its that I wasnt a Buddy Deaner. The school tried to throw me out before. My heart would have broken in two if I couldnt have gone on. Finally, Helen quit Mergenthaler (Mervo) trade school, at the height of her fame. Although WJZ-TV, owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting (now CBS since January 2, 1995), was an ABC affiliate, the station "blacked out" the network broadcast of American Bandstand in Baltimore and broadcast the Deane program instead, reportedly because Bandstand showed black teenagers dancing on the show (although black and white teenagers were not allowed to dance together until the show was moved to California in 1964). Hairspray encourages its audience to take the fight to integrate a teenage TV show seriously, but it does so through songs, dances, and costumes that celebrate and satirize the 60s. The Buddy Deane Show was over. Although the show has been off the air for more than twenty years, a nearly fanatical cult of fans has managed to keep the memory alive. THE BUDDY DEANE SHOW John Waters based The Corny Collins Show on The Buddy Deane Show, a daily Baltimore dance party show that was very popular throughout the late Fifties and early. He was 16 at the time of filming. 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